How Air Travel Impacts Your Hearing

Have you ever flown on an airplane and had problems hearing afterward? This is a common problem that you can often prevent by taking a few simple precautions.

The reason air travel creates ear issues is simple. When you change altitude, the air pressure on the outside of your ear changes while the pressure in your middle ear lags behind. This imbalance in pressure creates the unpleasant symptoms you experience during and after a flight. Hearing care professionals and doctors refer to this condition as ear barotrauma.

Some of the common symptoms of barotrauma are ear fullness, ear pain, and mild hearing impairment. Usually, ear barotrauma is temporary and the symptoms go away with a few hours of getting off of a flight. Occasionally, the symptoms persist of even worsen to the point that your ear feels stopped up or you feel pain, pressure, ringing in your ears (tinnitus).

Fortunately, your body has its own way of dealing with pressure imbalances. Connecting your middle ear and throat is a tube called the Eustachian tube. One of the jobs of the Eustachian tube is to open in response to pressure changes to equalize things so you don’t get those uncomfortable feelings in your ears or experience muffled hearing. Unfortunately, sometimes the Eustachian tube is a little slow to do its job.

Fortunately, you can help your Eustachian tube out. When you’re flying and the plane is about to land, chew on a piece of gum. The chewing action opens up your Eustachian tube and helps balance the pressure. If you don’t have a pack of gum, you can pinch your nostrils closed, close your mouth, and gently blow your nose. This is called the Valsalva maneuver, a little trick that helps open your Eustachian tube so the pressure evens out.  Take caution with this, however, and do not blow too hard.  Another safer, and perhaps more comfortable method, would be to try to induce yawning as a way to open the Eustachian tube.

Air travel isn’t the only time you can experience ear barotrauma. Driving through the mountains or scuba diving also expose your ears to pressure changes that can cause ear and hearing symptoms. Keep a pack of gum on hand, just in case.